An imprint technique for pressing a mold with a concavo-convex pattern formed on a composition to transfer a minute pattern has been precisely used in a method of producing optical elements such as optical or electronic parts.
An imprinting method generally includes four steps: (1) applying a composition, (2) pressing the composition with a mold, (3) transferring and curing (light or heat), and (4) releasing the mold from a cured material. Simple processes allow nano-sized fabricating. In addition, equipment is simple and high throughput is expected, so that the imprinting method is expected to be a fine processing technology for mass-producing at a low cost. Thus, an effort to put the method to practical use has been advanced in the various fields such as semiconductor devices, storage media, bio and optical elements (refer to Re-publication of PCT International Publication JP 2012-2413).